Makdissi: UN Secretary General’s Statement on Unilateral Ceasefire by the Syrian Side Incomplete

Damascus, (SANA)_Foreign and Expatriates Ministry Spokesman, Jihad al-Makdissi said that the UN Secretary General’s statement in Paris yesterday on the implementation of unilateral ceasefire by the Syrian side during his talks in New York, and that the Syrian side has asked him about what is next is incomplete and contained half of the truth regarding what has really happened during the talks and here is the whole story:

The UN Secretary General proposed implementing unilateral ceasefire and, in the same session, the Syrian side informed him that the Syrian Arab Republic has already implemented this proposal twice. The first time was during the work of the Arab Observers Mission headed by al-Dabi and the second one was on April 12th in the presence of the UN Observers Mission to Syria and in line with Mr. Kofi Annan’s six-point plan.

In both times, the armed groups exploited the commitment of the Syrian government to expand their armed deployment in some areas and since then human losses among military and civilians doubled due to the terrorist operations carried out by these groups in violation of the truce.

In light of what has been said, we agreed with the UN Secretary General on that the truce aims at creating appropriate atmosphere for the desired political dialogue and not to undermine Syria’s stability and exploit the commitment of the Syrian state. Therefore we asked the Secretary General to send his envoys to the countries concerned, especially Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey which fund, harbor, train and arm the armed groups to ensure these countries’ commitment to refrain from such acts, since they have influence on the armed groups, and to use their power to halt violence by the other side.

He added that the Syrian side asked to be informed on the outcome of the UN Secretary General’s efforts to discuss them with its leadership and make necessary arrangements.

R. Raslan/M. Ismael

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MOSCOW, (SANA) – Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, stressed on Wednesday that Russia will defend the principles of the UN Charter regarding solving the crisis in Syria and settling the Iranian nuclear file.

Russia Today website reported Lavrov as saying before the Russian Federation Council that arbitrary interpretations of the general principles of the UN Charter such as preventing the use and threat of force, resorting to peaceful solutions to pending issues, respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries and non-interference in the internal affairs constitute a threat to the global system.

Lavrov added that Russia will continue its persistence on the sovereignty of law in the international issues, pointing out that his country is exerting efforts to search for means to solve crisis in Syria and the Iranian nuclear file.

The Russian Foreign Minister expressed Moscow’s readiness for holding the second meeting of the action group on Syria at any time.

“We are ready to hold this meeting at any time but we realize that it should be prepared to,” said Lavrov, noting that when Russia last August proposed holding a meeting for the group to stress the necessity to implement Geneva statement and most importantly for the members to take upon themselves to influence the two parties to the conflict in Syria, its partners were not ready for that.

In the same context, Lavrov said that Syria and Turkey should engage into a direct dialogue to settle the situation after the incident which took place on the border early October.

He added that the Syrian side “is interested in regaining contact with Turkey”, expressing hope that Ankara too is ready to communicate with Damascus.

Lavrov noted that the UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, will formulate, after having visited Damascus, ideas for “settling the conflict” in the country based on Geneva statement.

“Brahimi visited the region and Damascus, and now is heading to the region again. Afterwards, he’ll formulate ideas that will be based, as he told me in New York, on the main points of Geneva meeting, which is absolutely correct,” said Lavrov.

On the Iranian issue, the Russian Foreign Minister warned of the dangerous repercussions that would result from launching military strikes against Iran, hoping that there would be no such strikes.

He considered that such developments, if happened, “would be the nearest way towards undermining the efforts seeking to settle all the issues regarding the Iranian nuclear file.”